Texans in House urge Pentagon to transfer surplus equipment to border security

In a Catch-22 emblematic of the nation’s capital, Reps. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, and Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, are pressing the Pentagon to turn over returning combat equipment from Iraq and Afghanistan to federal and state law enforcement agencies patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border.

But the Department of Homeland Security is balking at the prospect of open-ended transfers, concerned that the department could be saddled with the long-term costs of operating high-tech systems such as Predator surveillance drones or risk of missing out on tailor-made technology developed by private industry.

The maneuvering during a congressional hearing reflected a tightening budget squeeze besetting all federal operations – and the impediments to collaboration that are arising as a result.

McCaul and Cuellar, who explored prospective equipment transfers during visits with military commanders in Afghanistan and Iraq last week, said surveillance equipment was just one example of the battle-proven technology that could be useful detecting border crossings by drug traffickers, undocumented immigrants and gun runners.

McCaul pointed to the use of tethered aerostat devices – blimp-like balloons linked to the ground and loaded with surveillance equipment.

“If they are no longer needed in the Middle East, and we do have the need for more surveillance on the border, then let’s try putting them to work instead of shelving them and buying something else that may or may not work,” McCaul said. “If a product exists that is already proven to work in a war zone then there is no reason to reinvent the wheel.”

Cuellar said DHS “should take advantage of dual-use technologies and surplus equipment where possible,” adding: “Particularly in these tough budget times, we simply cannot afford not to.”

But Mark Borkowski, the technology czar for U.S. Customs and Border Protection that includes the U.S. Border Patrol, said his budget-strapped department wants “what we need — and not what is the shiniest system in the box.”

Borkowski balked at lawmakers’ suggestions that collaboration be tightened between the Pentagon and DHS.

“I think we need a little more structure,” Borkowski acknowledged. “But I’m a little skeptical that we make it too structured.”

Equipment designed for the rigors of combat may not be compatible with surveillance or communications networks acquired by the U.S. Border Patrol, Borkowski said.

Military equipment also may be expensive to operate, hard to maintain and require extensive training for civilian personnel. Two Predator surveillance drones flown along the U.S.-Texas border by the Pentagon cost the defense department $3,234 per flight hour last year, according to a study by the Government Accountability Office.

The U.S. Coast Guard, for example, said the agency does not need surplus combat equipment from the Pentagon to bolster interdiction of drug traffickers, undocumented immigrants or search and rescue missions along the Rio Grande border area.

“The current mix of Coast Guard assets and personnel operating in the region is sufficient,” Coast Guard Commander Bion Stewart told Cuellar in a two-page report.

Before the surge of returning military equipment and the costs that go with it, Pentagon transfers have been routine.

The 50 states and more than 17,000 federal, state and local agencies have accepted more than $2.6 billion worth of donated military equipment for use in counter-narcotics and counter-terrorism activities – including $600 million this year alone, Pentagon equipment turnover chief Paul Stockton told the lawmakers, members of the House Homeland Security panel on border and maritime security.

In Texas alone, the Pentagon has transferred $16 million worth of equipment in recent years, including 62 tactical vehicles such as Humvees, 1,200 weapons for police and watercraft to help patrol coastal waterways or the Rio Grande River.

The Pentagon is “ramping up” to provide even more equipment in the years to come, as U.S. troops withdraw from Iraq by Dec. 31 and from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, Stockton said.